Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes

Philosophy, rightly defined, is simply the love of wisdom

Marcus Tullius Cicero

The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and ontrolled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced. If the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt, people must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance

Marcus Tullius Cicero

If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Friendship is the only thing in the world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed

Marcus Tullius Cicero

A bureaucrat is the most despicable of men, though he is needed as vultures are needed, but one hardly admires vultures whom bureaucrats so strangely resemble. I have yet to meet a bureaucrat who was not petty, dull, almost witless, crafty or stupid, an oppressor or a thief, a holder of little authority in which he delights, as a boy delights in possessing a vicious dog. Who can trust such creatures?

Marcus Tullius Cicero

The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Ability without honor is useless.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Ability without honor is useless.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Great is the power of habit. It teaches us to bear fatigue and to despise wounds and pain.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

The greater the difficulty, the greater the glory.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Freedom is a man's natural power of doing what he pleases, so far as he is not prevented by force or law.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

When a government becomes powerful it is destructive, extravagant and violent; it is an usurer which takes bread from innocent mouths and deprives honorable men of their substance, for votes with which to perpetuate itself.